The Norwich City season preview focuses on a one-time Premier League yo-yo side now seemingly destined to remain in the middle of the Championship.
Norwich City look mentally drained and need an overhaul, yet the kind required isn’t feasible after a slump to 13th. At least new/old faces Ashley Barnes and Shane Duffy will bring experience, while Jack Stacey is a neat pick-up and Gabriel Sara will provide individual quality again
Any sort of promotion, or even play-off, push looks unlikely, though they'll definitely have too much quality to avoid the drop. Losing Teemu Pukki is also a blow, though no one can begrudge the Finn for wanting to move on from the Championship.
Norwich City season preview 2023/24, the fan's view: Nick Hayhoe
Last season was an existential crisis.
The big talking point is that we’re at a crossroads. Teemu Pukki’s exit has signalled the end of a cycle, and no one knows what’s best for us next.
Our most underrated player is the world’s best centre-half: Grant Hanley. He’s made in Scotland from girders. Sure, he’ll underhit the odd backpass, but it wouldn’t be us if that didn’t happen each week. We need him fit from a ruptured Achilles soon.
The player I’d happily drive to another club is Josh Sargent. He went to the World Cup with the USA and then forgot how to kick a football, which he wasn’t the best at doing in the first place.
The active player I’d love to have back is Emi Buendia. We gave up any notion of wanting to be a proper top-flight club when we flogged him to Aston Villa after promotion in 2020/21.
I’m least looking forward to playing Ipswich – not because they’re on the up and could finally break our 14-year unbeaten streak, but because it always gives me a stomach ache just thinking about playing them.
The thing my club really gets right is boring stuff like having good training facilities. We’ve even got an organic vegetable patch. You’ll never sing that.
The one change I’d make would be for our women’s team to keep playing at Carrow Road. In April, more than 7,000 fans turned up for their first ever match there, and it was ace.
The opposition player I’d love here is the 40-year-old Fabio Quagliarella. It’s exactly 10 years since Juventus reportedly turned down £9m from us. We got Ricky van Wolfswinkel instead.
The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is that David Wagner is avoiding a lot of flak that is instead being aimed at sporting director Stuart Webber. Wagner made a decent start, culminating in a great win at Millwall in February – then we fell apart and missed the play-offs by miles.
If he left, he should be replaced by ChatGPT. We already have a football simulator called SoccerBot360 at our training ground, so we may as well go the whole hog. It’d be cheaper.
We’ll finish 7th.
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